


Pirate Peter

by Icarus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-10
Updated: 2006-08-10
Packaged: 2018-10-25 18:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10769652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icarus/pseuds/Icarus
Summary: An old enemy returns and a rat shows his true colours.





	Pirate Peter

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes: Written for HP Shortfics. Genre: Pirates!  


* * *

It was night and the fog roiled across the deck, the snap of sails lazy and becalmed. Fourscore men slept below her creaking timbers, unaware of what lay just off her forward bow. The wheel rolled helplessly with the lift of the tides. 

A tall shape to port arose in the mist, distant, dark as a shadow, moving slow but purposefully towards them. 

There was a lookout, or else there should have been, but the crow's nest swayed empty in the sky, with naught but a large fat rat crawling down ropes as thick as a man's arm. It moved with curious directness and speed, avid light in its eyes. The listless flag lifted with a breath of wind-sable, with the dreadful skull and snake's tongue-then fell dead, as asleep as its crew. At the base of the mainsail the rat clambered over limp hand of the helmsman where he lay sprawled across the deck. 

The wash of oars drew closer, a first hint that indeed, men crewed this ship gliding through the waters, smooth as ghost, unheeded. As she breached a gap in the fog her masts like skeletons reared out of the mist, her shabby sails rent and torn. Faces with glittering eyes eagerly lined her decks. The flag she flew stirred but once. Black as the hearts that crewed her. 

On the gunwale, the rat rose on its hind legs, sniffing the wind as if it held some rare treat. Peter was a traitor once again. 


End file.
